


yours will be a happy future

by dragonsbydaylight



Series: Prompts by Daylight: The LuciSev Agenda [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/F, Post-Game, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 08:14:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13783431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonsbydaylight/pseuds/dragonsbydaylight
Summary: Severa, at last, returns home from Nohr, and all is as it should be, except--"Where's Lucina?""We don't know," admitted Morgan.(From a Tumblr Prompt: "Of all the people to walk through that door, it was you. After so long.")





	yours will be a happy future

The most disorienting part about returning to Ylisse wasn’t the tears in her mother’s eyes, or the crushing embrace of her father. It wasn’t the way _Minerva_ of all people crashed into her with Gerome still on her back, maskless and sighing in relief that she was _alive_. It wasn’t the fact that Cynthia had left a bunch of Pegasus fur on her clothes when they hugged, or how Robin had only smiled in that unspeakably knowing way upon seeing her, as if everything had gone according to plan.

All of that had been strange, sure, but—

Her room was exactly the way she had left it.

Severa opened the door, and closed the door, and she was left standing there as if she’d gone back in time. The view from the window seemed surreal, curtains flapping gently in the cool evening breeze. The Ylissean countryside as seen from the castle barracks was all green and beautiful; such a stark contrast from the bleak Nohrian crags she’d long grown accustomed to.

_“Where’s Lucina?” Severa asked after she’d finally pried Yarne off of her. Inigo and Owain were suffering similar bouts of jubilation from their friends as word spread of their return._

_Yarne’s ears drooped low, and Noire practically strangled her bow._

_“We don’t know,” admitted Morgan._

_Severa’s blood turned to ice. “What do you mean you DON’T KNOW?”_

They didn’t know. No one did. There had been no struggle, no sadness, no fights or conflict. Robin confessed that one day Lucina had been there, and then the next, she had not. The topic was clearly stressing to Chrom.

Severa dropped her bag, carrying all of her belongings from her long stay in Nohr. She placed her shield on top of it, and wandered over to the window, all the exhaustion she’d been feeling replaced with an aggravated energy.

Where was Lucina? The question of the hour.

_They’d already said goodbye, but Severa wasn’t surprised by the familiar voice behind her as she stood, staring down the gateway between worlds._

_“Should you change your mind,” Lady Camilla said, sad and quiet, “you will always have a place here…My dearest Selena.”_

_The conversation had been…tense, but considering it hadn’t ended with Camilla physically forcing her back to Nohr, Severa figured she’d take what she could get._

She looked for her.

Not just her, but _everyone_. Though Severa learned that all the rest of their sorry, time-traveling entourage had already spent months scouring Ylisse and beyond for their Exalt, it didn’t stop her from personally overturning what had to be every stone on every road in every town for her. Lucina just up and leaving like this, it was almost unbelievable.

Almost.

But as she turned her Pegasus away from Valm, she knew exactly what her dearest and oldest companion, her first liege, her first _love_ —as horridly cliché as it was, to be in love with the daughter of the man her mother once fell for—had likely been thinking, when she departed Ylisse.

Because as time passed, Severa became more and more certain of this fact. Lucina was not in Ylisse, not in this world, not in this _time_.

She’d secured a happy future for all of their alternate selves. In this time, there would be no orphans, no war, no Grima. Lucina had likely figured that she’d done all that she could, and though the others would be free to make their own decisions, she had ultimately decided that it would raise too many questions for her to stay here, and so…she didn’t.

(Severa remembered the melancholy in Robin’s eyes at dinner that night, when she asked about it. Robin knew. Of that, she was certain.)

She loved her parents. She loved her friends. She loved Ylisse, and this world.

And yet.

The questions. The stares. The fact that she was from another world, another time, wasn’t something that one could explain over a casual cup of tea. And though she had no doubt that her parents would happily welcome her into their home once again, seeing her infant self there, it was…

Disorienting.

She’d had a home in Nohr, as well. A cause and a liege to commit herself to, in a world where the biggest question about her was simply where she came from, not _when_. Being free of her past after spending so long being haunted by it, had been liberating.

Without Lucina here, and with Lucina’s reasoning burning so brightly in her mind, Severa’s course of action became clear.

At least, this time, she would let everyone know.

_The night watches were always the worst._

_Severa drew her cloak tighter around herself, hunching her shoulders in defiance against the cold wind blowing in from the mountains to the north. The torch carried high in her free hand illuminated the shadows a fair amount, casting dancing shapes across the barren landscape. Nothing substantial had grown in Ylisse in over a decade. At her back, the others were asleep, their tents dark and still._

_Lucina came to sit beside her._

_Severa scowled. “It’s not your turn.”_

_“I know. But seeing as I’m unable to sleep, I thought I might keep you company. If you’d allow me.”_

_“You need to rest,” she replied flatly._

_“I think being beside someone would do me more good, at the moment.” Lucina’s voice was soft._

_Severa deliberated on it for a moment, but then she shrugged. “Whatever. Hold this for a second.”_

_Lucina took the torch so Severa could be free to pull out some of their stolen rations. The Grimleal may be crazy cultists, but they still had to eat, and that meant food was still available if one knew where to look._

_Severa turned the bread over in her hands, and Lucina guessed her thoughts._

_“We’re fortunate that Morgan foresaw the possibility of the Grimleal using poisoned rations.”_

_She grunted in agreement, knowing that all of this had already been prescreened. She ripped the bread in half, handing a piece to Lucina and taking the torch back._

_It was so cold. Ylisse didn’t used to be this cold, before Grima._

_“Before Grima” described pretty much everything that had to do with the past._

_“So. Spit it out.”_

_Lucina blinked, startled. “Spit what out? Hasn’t Morgan checked the rations already?”_

_“No, not the--!” Severa blew a sigh. “I mean, SOMETHING’S clearly on your mind, so out with it already.”_

_“Ah.” Lucina mulled over the question, her fingers pressed to her chin. She leaned a little closer to Severa, presumably in reaction to the cold._

_Severa resisted the urge to move away, rolling her shoulders and looking off into the night._

_“I hope that you see me as an equal,” Lucina said eventually._

_Severa’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean, ‘an equal’?”_

_“That first and foremost, I am your friend.”_

_She thought about the Falchion, brilliant and legendary, strapped to Lucina’s side, always. Severa wolfed down another bite._

_“Look, that’s true, but you’re also the Exalt. You’re not even ‘just’ a princess—you’re my liege. You’re kinda a big deal.” It felt unbelievably odd to say that, but it was true. Her mother, Cordelia, had served the Pegasus Knights loyally, and they had been in the service of Emmeryn, and then Chrom, and now…_

_Well, she wasn’t a Knight, but she was still honorbound to protect the princess. Lucina was more important than all of them. If they wanted to have ANY chance of beating Grima, they needed to keep her alive. This was the unspoken agreement between each and every person in their group._

_It seemed Lucina had caught on to it._

_Lucina sighed. “My life is worth no more than yours or anyone else’s. Please, Severa, if something were to happen to you—”_

_“The world would keep spinning,” Severa snapped, harsher than she meant to, and she had no idea why. She had no idea why she glared at Lucina like that, why the notion that her life was anywhere near comparable to Lucina’s offended her so much. Looking back on this memory, she just remembered giving Lucina a withering glower, and the princess staring tiredly back._

_Lucina dropped her gaze. She looked as if she had so much more to say, and though Severa wanted to growl at her to keep going, to just say whatever it was that was on her mind, a part of her was scared to hear the answer._

_So, she said nothing._

_And murmuring an apology, Lucina stayed quiet for the rest of the night, leaving before Severa’s replacement would arrive._

The Outrealm Gate was manned by Anna. _An_ Anna, she supposed, and Severa couldn’t possibly express how unnerving it was to see the same exact face and hear the same exact voice and yet know that this wasn’t the same person, no matter how similar they looked, from Nohr, to Ylisse, and back again.

Severa wondered if something like this would happen, eventually, when her infant self in this time grew older.

She didn’t intend to find out.

“Welcome to the Outrealm Gate!” Anna called cheerily, one finger placed coyly upon her lip. “Care to visit another world?”

Severa shifted her bag upon her shoulder. “Yeah. I’m going back to Nohr. Was that you who was here the first time I got back?”

“Nope! That was my sister,” Anna answered in the kind of tone that made it impossible to tell if she was lying or not.

“Whatever! Look, will this cover the fare or not?”

She didn’t even know if there _was_ a fare. Corrin had simply explained the situation to the Anna on the other side of the Gate, and Anna had said something vague and mysterious about how she’d been “waiting for this moment”.

And once again, or perhaps, for the first time, Anna gave a catlike smile, her eyes gleaming in the glow of the gateway.

“ _Weeell_ , I’m running a discount for today, so you have _just_ enough! Just let me check on a little something in my shop, and I’ll be right back.”

Anna disappeared before Severa could say anything, dipping down and around the rock she usually perched on, vanishing from view.

Just…great. Wonderful.

Severa twisted some of her hair in her palms, an unconscious gesture that she _hated_ doing but had become something of a nervous habit when she was alone. Was this even the right thing to do? Going back to serve Lady Camilla alongside Beruka, since it sure seemed like Lucina didn’t _want_ to be found—

The familiar _whoosh_ of the Gateway transporting someone made Severa look up, eyes wide.

Of all the people to walk through that door between worlds, after spending _so long_ looking for her, and away from her—

It had to be Lucina.

She looked just as she remembered her. A little older, perhaps, a bit more mature, but still beautiful. The shifting lights of the Gateway made her Brand shine in her eyes, and made a mirror out of Falchion, as though the blade had caught the essence of worlds within its dragon-made steel. Lucina’s cape tousled delicately in the arcane wind generated by the doorway.

And they just stared at one another for a long time. In silence.

Severa broke the quiet, voice like a whip.

“And where have you _been?_ ”

Lucina had one hand upon her sword’s hilt, the other lifted as if to ward off a blow, or else reach for her, Severa didn’t know. “Severa, I—”

“I was looking _everywhere_ for you!”

“I could say the same.”

And Lucina smiled. She just smiled at her. No accusations, no messy explanations, just a calm and delighted upturning of her lips that made Severa’s heart do flips, because protecting this girl had been her drive for so long, because home was ultimately wherever they found themselves, together.

Different times, different worlds, different names.

In the face of such a warm smile, Severa found herself tongue-tied, for once. She didn’t move as Lucina came closer with all the gentleness of someone approaching a wild animal.

Lucina looked into her eyes, and Severa wondered what she saw there, because the princess took in a slow breath, her next words deeply sympathetic.

“You must have faced many trials while you were away.”

“Gods. You don’t know the _half_ of it.”

“And Owain? And Inigo?”

“They’re fine,” Severa said distractedly, honestly not thinking about those two (beloved) numbskulls at the moment. “And what about _you_? Why did you just up and leave like that?!”

“…An assortment of reasons.” Lucina looked pained. “Amongst them was wishing to find you, though I was informed—” and here, she inclined her head toward where Anna usually perched, “—that you would return when it was time.”

“That’s what Robin kept saying about _you_ ,” Severa said, horrified to find a strain to her voice.

Lucina chuckled. “I would be lying if I said I was surprised.” She took a look at Severa, clearly packed and ready to go, and furrowed her brows. “Were you planning on leaving again?”

“Yeah. For an _assortment_ of reasons.” Severa rolled her eyes. “What about you? Were you heading back?”

“Not yet,” Lucina admitted. “I think Anna sent me through the wrong door.”

Severa thanked the gods for strangely identical gatekeepers.

“So…” Severa folded her arms. There was so much to talk about, and a small, rocky island with a magical portal to other worlds seemed like a poor location for a heart-to-heart. “If _you’re_ not going back, and _I’m_ not going back, we might as well not go back together.”

Lucina processed that. “Yes,” she agreed slowly, that little smile returning to her face. “Were you planning on going anywhere in particular?”

“Back to the place I just got back from, yeah.”

“I wouldn’t mind seeing this place with you. But before we do, I must ask you to promise me something.”

“…What?”

Lucina gave her a level stare. “If we leave together, I wish for you to see me as an equal. Not as your liege, or your princess, or the Exalt.”

“ _My_ equal?” Talk about lowering one’s station.

“Yes.”

The bluntness of the reply didn’t sit right with Severa. She narrowed her eyes. Lucina had that fierce look to her, as though she was prepared to fight an uphill battle.

Gods, _she’d missed her_.

“I can’t do that,” Severa said abruptly. Lucina’s eyes widened in shock, but she soldiered on, feeling her face redden as she struggled to get the words out. “Because, _you know_ , you’re always going—to be—my—”

Lucina looked absolutely flummoxed.

“You’re always going to be _my_ princess, okay?!”

By the _dragons_ that was a horrible line. She couldn’t believe she’d even uttered it. Even Inigo would’ve been rolling on the floor from the sheer audacity of that statement. But in the rush of the moment, it was all that Severa could think of to explain just what Lucina was to her, exactly.

She was important. So, _so_ important to her.

Lucina, however, gave a bright laugh in reply, lifting a hand in a poor attempt to smother it.

“I see. If you insist upon seeing me as a princess, then I will still insist that you see me as your equal.” Lucina offered her hand, and Severa stared. “I would like nothing more than to walk the world with you again, Severa.”

Severa hesitated, though only a moment. She put her hand out, lacing their fingers together, and she felt like she’d finally lost that disorientation—like she’d finally come _home_.

“…Well, let’s get on with it, then.”

Anna reappeared as if on cue, snapping her fingers and changing the shifting colors of the Outrealm Gate to Nohrian black and purple.

And, hand in hand, they stepped through the gate.

~*~

_"Lucina disappeared after whispering these words to her infant self: "Yours will be a happy future." Did she journey to another land or back to her own time? ...No one knows for certain."_

_“Not much is known of Selena's postwar activities, Depending on who you believe, she became one of the world's best seamstresses, metalsmiths, actors, and/or mercenaries.”_

**Author's Note:**

> WOW SO hi if you're reading this, anon, i hope this fits your prompt? i'm sorry it dragged on for so long. if anything's amiss and you want me to take another go at it, feel free to message me again, like if you're looking for more physical intimacy or etc  
> i wanted to try and bridge the curiosity of Lucina's unmarried ending with Severa's tendency to vanish from records in Fates, and leave to travel on her own in her unmarried Awakening ending.  
> (in other words: harold, they're time-traveling lesbians)  
> i know none of Severa's endings have her stay to serve Camilla but let me have this  
> if you also love this pairing, send me prompts on [my tumblr](https://dragonsbydaylight.tumblr.com/), you might see your idea featured here! or...something


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